No, not the buzz of social media, but the buzz in open office environments.
These days companies spend both time and money creating and managing the buzz of social networks—more every year—with varying degrees of success.
But only the most perceptive are recognizing the need to manage the noise level, especially of conversations, whether on cell phones or between colleagues, in open office environments.
“The noisemakers aren’t so bothered by the lack of privacy, but most people are not happy, and designers are finally starting to pay attention to the problem.” –John Goins
Studies have proved over and over that human brains can’t multitask and that doing so reduces competency on all tasks; of even more concern is reduced productivity.
Researchers at Finland’s Institute of Occupational Health have studied precisely how far those conversations carry and analyzed their effect on the unwilling listener: a decline of 5 percent to 10 percent on the performance of cognitive tasks requiring efficient use of short-term memory, like reading, writing and other forms of creative work.
Most people actually tune out conversation-blocking background noise like music for focus-intensive work such as writing, but conversations are a different matter.
“Noise is the most serious problem in the open-plan office, and speech is the most disturbing type of sound because it is directly understood in the brain’s working memory,” said Valtteri Hongisto, an acoustician at the institute. He found that workers were more satisfied and performed better at cognitive tasks when speech sounds were masked by a background noise of a gently burbling brook.
Autodesk got the message and installed what is known as a pink-noise system in its Massachusetts offices.
Pink-noise provides a soft whooshing over loudspeakers that sounds like a ventilation system but is specially formulated to match the frequencies of human voices.
To test its validity they turned it off after three months and the complaints poured in.
“We were surprised at how many complaints we got,” said Charles Rechtsteiner, Autodesk’s facilities manager. “People weren’t sure what was different, but they knew something was wrong. They were being distracted by conversations 60 feet away. When the system’s on, speech becomes unintelligible at a distance of about 20 feet.”
Whether your company recognizes the problem or not, there are many things that you can do in your area to avoid noise-related productivity loss.
The first is to make sure that you are not part of the problem, because you will change no one else’s actions with a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do approach.
Next, talk to your team; find the problems and work together to alleviate them as opposed to assigning blame to a few gabby colleagues.
Culture is today’s focus; it is considered the reason that companies succeed or fail and whether innovation will flourish or wither.
Culture is researched, dissected, written about and discussed; is culture a set of specific rules or a moving target, amorphous and difficult to pin down?
Perhaps it’s more like a computer, with core hardware and constantly changing software.
In computing, the term I/O refers to input, whatever is received by the system, and output, that which results when the input if processed.
Programmers know that if the input if bad what comes out of the computer won’t be any better, a phenomenon known as “garbage in/garbage out.”
GI/GO applies to culture and, for that matter, everything else in life.
What comes out is a function of what you put in.
Blindly accepting everything offered by even the most brilliant source will result in garbage out at some point.
Creating and sustaining good culture requires more than studying what’s worked elsewhere and best practice benchmarks; it requires critical thinking on your part.
No one person, past, present or future, has all the answers. No company has tried every possible combination of every approach conceivable.
That means being your own computer—gathering input from all available sources, applying it to your situation, processing it—absorbing, reworking and rejecting.
The result will be at least slightly different from what you started with, because you’ve added the flavor of your own life experiences, knowledge and MAP to the mix—and that’s good, it shouldn’t be an exact copy.
A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read allIf the Shoe Fits posts here
Over the past few days we’ve been discussing the importance of disconnecting, the destructive force of 24/7 work and what drives people to do it.
People who found companies do so because they have a vision; they recognize a need as well as a way to fill it.
The real work comes between recognition and fulfillment—sharing and evangelizing the vision, building a framework within which the vision can become reality and then sharing the reality with the world at large.
The middle step, the framework, is what differentiates short-term success from long-term.
The middle step requires a cultural vision that also needs to be shared and evangelized.
There is much truth in the analogy that startups are like children and, like parents, founders need to decide ahead of time the value system they want their child to absorb.
As founder you have a far-reaching choice to make; far-reaching because it will affect your company for years to come and determine if your child is
respectful and values the people in and around it; or
a spoiled brat that sees the world only in terms of mememememememe.
Option Sanity™ is values-based.
Come visit Option Sanity for an easy-to-understand, simple-to-implement stock process; so easy a CEO can do it.
Warning.
Do not attempt to use Option Sanity™ without a strong commitment to business planning, financial controls, honesty, ethics, and “doing the right thing.” Use only as directed.
Users of Option Sanity may experience sudden increases in team cohesion and worker satisfaction. In cases where team productivity, retention and company success is greater than typical, expect media interest and invitations as keynote speaker.
Actually, it’s especially true in startups where environments, which 30 years ago meant 80-hour weeks, but have increased to near 24/7.
Not only do we have difficulty maintaining personal boundaries with work because our lives and jobs are so enmeshed with technology, but we also feel intense pressure from our organizations to be “always on” and immediately responsive to calls and emails outside of normal working hours. —Knowledge @ Wharton
That’s a pretty accurate description of most founders and, like it of not, they are their company’s primary role model—the person everyone tries to channel.
Do a little eavesdropping any place where startup people congregate and you may leave with the impression that pulling all-nighters is a competitive sport.
But people are like batteries and down time is the equivalent of an alternator.
If the alternator on your car stops working and you keep driving eventually the battery dies.
Come back tomorrow for a look at the benefits of extending founder vision beyond your product.
Yesterday I said I would offer some ideas for helping people on your team disconnect, since not all companies are willing to shut down email at night in order to force the issue.
Even the ones that do might not accomplish what they intend given that there are plenty of ways to continue working without corporate email.
So what can one manager do to change attitudes within her own group?
For your team, one of the most important is recognizing that digital addiction is more about its effect on ego than a love of gadgets.
“Being a successful member of middle class society is showing our dedication to professional work and being available at all hours of the day.” –Carolyn Marvin, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication
Changing that perception requires more than a statement or directive from you.
I’ve said over and over “to change what they do change how you think.”
You need to change your beliefs and your actions.
There is no way you can tell your team to take a digital break if you don’t take one.
Why would anyone do what you say when they see you doing the opposite?
If they can always reach you nights, weekends and vacation by email or phone do you really believe that they will disconnect?
Worse, if you actively contact them during those times they wouldn’t dare not to be available.
To make disconnecting truly productive from both your/company’s point of view and the individuals’ requires an open conversation.
Use the article Wharton article as the basis for a “say anything” discussion and together create a holistic digital framework that provides the downtime needed to have a life and recharge without cost to organizational accomplishment, personal perceptions or ego.
I guarantee that if you make the time and commit to doing the work your group’s productivity and creativity will skyrocket while turnover drops like a stone.
Join me tomorrow for a look at how disconnecting plays in a startup.
“Employers are recognizing that it is helpful for employees to have boundaries. … People can learn to shut things off. It’s not easy, and it requires dedicated effort.” –Stewart Friedman, Wharton practice professor of management
There was a time when people bragged about always being available; how no matter where they were or what they were doing they were reachable.
Some still do, but many more are (or have) quietly burned out and are just going through the motions.
The spark is gone and that has put a major damper on innovation, creativity, productivity and caring, or engagement if you prefer.
Companies from Atos, the French information technology services giant, to Deutsche Telekom to Google have recently adopted measures that force workers toward a better work-life balance, with scheduled breaks from the Internet and constant connectivity.
In a bid to combat employee burnout, staff at Volkswagen will be limited to only receiving emails on their devices from half an hour before they start work until half an hour after they leave for the day, and will be in blackout mode the rest of the time.
As opposed to warm and fuzzy work-life balance attitudes, these efforts are grounded in hard-headed, pragmatic, selfish business sense.
If people burn out, become less innovative and productive or have to deal with upheaval in their personal lives as a result of being always on it costs the company cold, hard cash.
Less innovation and lower productivity makes the company less competitive.
Replacing people is not only very expensive, but irreplaceable institutional knowledge is also lost.
Smart companies take care of their assets and these days that means both controlling connectivity and changing the culture, so that turning off is no longer a mortal sin.
Join me tomorrow for a look at what you, at any management level, can do.
An “expert blogger” at Fast Company wrote a post about what large companies can learn from startups (next month she’s writing the flip side, i.e., what startups can learn from large companies.)
Here is her advice in a nutshell,
Startups are flatter; if you can’t flatten, delegate and empower.
Startups have tighter timelines; a mandatory deadline is a pretty good way to shut up any last-minute hesitations.
Startups value disruption; when a company is setting out to define their corporate culture “risk” should make an appearance right between “honesty” and “respect.”
All well and good, but not exactly new information.
At Davos, John Kao, who advises corporations and governments on innovation, said that training and discipline and improvised creativity are the yin and the yang of innovation and used Google and Apple as examples of the two approaches.
Useful information and stuff you can put to work in your organization, but not particularly electrifying.
One problem is that so much of the talk about innovation cites either startups or technology companies as examples of risk and creativity.
Yes, Esquire; a print magazine in an industry that most experts have written off as dead.
In 2011, a year when the magazine industry was flat to down a bit, Esquire was up 13.5 percent in ad pages from the previous year.
To put that in perspective, consider that in 2009 it lost 24.3% advertising pages as compared with 2008 and the brand was predicted to disappear in 2010.
What happened?
Esquire’s editor in chief, David Granger did lay off 20% of his staff and substantially reduce editorial pages, but what he did not do was fire the big name talent in favor of younger, i.e., cheaper, staffers.
He did not, as they say, throw the baby out with the bathwater.
And the staff responded with an outpouring of creativity.
For its 75th anniversary issue in 2008, right about the time magazines were heading off a cliff, he and his designers put together an “E-Ink” cover that flashed, right there on the newsstand. (See video below.)
On almost any given day there are dozens of articles on how to juice innovation and creativity, but I think the Esquire article stands out.
Not because it gives you a list of what is wrong or spells out what to do, but because it proves that just because the “experts” say that not just you, but also your industry, are dead doesn’t mean they are.
What truly innovative companies have in common is a culture that embraces a willingness to live or die by risking failure.
In a series of studies, Francesca Gino and Dan Ariely found that inherently creative people tend to cheat more than noncreative people. Furthermore, they showed that inducing creative behavior tends to induce unethical behavior.HBS Working Knowledge
Not good news when your goal is to increase creativity in your people, but not really surprising.
When we think actively, we see more possibilities, and that includes ways to gain an advantage – a survival mechanism. When we think passively, we don’t see the possibilities, so we follow the rules. –Deb Pekin, Change Manager, Kraft Foods Inc (from a comment)
Creativity isn’t a faucet that can be turned off when it’s inconvenient—it’s part of a person’s MAP; it’s who they are, so they will apply it across the board.
“Dan and I are of the hope that managers will start thinking about how to structure the creative process in such a way that they can keep ethics in check, triggering the good behavior without triggering the bad behavior.”
That’s one approach.
Perhaps a better one is to build a strong ethical culture first and overlay it with a culture that encourages creativity and innovation.
One of the most important things is to make sure that unethical behavior is not tolerated, let alone rewarded; in fact, in some cases it should be terminated.
Of course, that means ethics would trump expediency; not the most common scenario in modern business.
I write a lot abut the importance of culture and now and then someone calls or writes asking why I keep harping on it (BTW, I love when readers call, that’s why there’s a toll-free number in the right-hand column.)
I’m not the only one fixated on the role culture plays in everything from acquiring, motivating and retaining employees to creativity, innovation and overall company success.
Booz’ strategy + business annual innovation survey focuses on culture, not money to improve results.
Booz & Company’s annual study shows that spending more on R&D won’t drive results. The most crucial factors are strategic alignment and a culture that supports innovation.
“My turnover was non-existent. Our turnover is only two percent. We also hire the right people almost every time, because we know that core values are more important than skills. We can teach the skills. Now that we’re all aligned for what the vision is and what’s important to us as humans, we have a culture of resilience and efficient productivity.”
Lani Hay, founder/CEO of defense contracting company Lanmark Technology, turned over three COOs in the same year she won a prestigious national women’s entrepreneurship award and quadrupled company revenues.
“I don’t want to let anyone in the corporate culture who’s going to disrupt the culture and isn’t a good fit.” … Hay says she’s learned that she needs to listen to a wider array of Lanmark staffers, and make sure she values effective communications and an ability to work well with her team. She’s also paying more attention to cultural fit in hiring.
Why in the world would I choose a poet who’s life barely reached into the Twentieth Century (1850-1919 to provide insight to both workers and mangers? Because real wisdom is ageless, what changes are the words and style used to communicate it.
You’re already familiar with Wilcox through paraphrasing of some of her work; for example, “Laugh and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone; For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, But has trouble enough of its own”
Life is full of choices and the way we choose is dictated by our MAP, or as Wilcox said, “’Tis the set of the sail that decides the goal, and not the storm of life”
I’m a big proponent of deep thinking, something that can’t happen when you are wired and connected. Wilcox made this point beautifully in this short rhyme.
“When the great universe was wrought
To might and majesty from naught,
The all creative force was –
THOUGHT.”
Thinking goes hand in hand with learning and then sharing what is learned with others. The problem is that some people want to share first and these words seem written especially for them,
“Live to learn, and learn to live
If you want to give men knowledge
You must get, ere you give.”
Here’s some great advice for managers, “A pat on the back is only a few vertebrae removed from a kick in the pants, but is miles ahead in results.”
Finally, here are six words that can serve as a foundation for both entrepreneurs and companies working to create a culture of innovation, “Change is the watchword of progression”
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
No, not the buzz of social media, but the buzz in open office environments.
What comes out is a function of what you put in.
Over the past few days we’ve been discussing 
Yesterday I said I would offer some ideas for 
personal lives as a result of being always on it costs the company cold, hard cash.
In a series of studies, Francesca Gino and Dan Ariely found that inherently creative people tend to cheat more than noncreative people. Furthermore, they showed that inducing creative behavior tends to induce unethical behavior. 
Why in the world would I choose a poet who’s life barely reached into the Twentieth Century (1850-1919 to provide insight to both workers and mangers? Because real wisdom is ageless, what changes are the words and style used to communicate it.
